


Meliorism

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: Yuma is a Girl [4]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Gen, Gender or Sex Swap, Takashi is kind of a jerk in the beginning of the series isn't he?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 03:48:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11959071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: Meliorism - the belief that the world can be made better by human effort





	Meliorism

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my Zexal rewrite that I started for Zexal month on tumblr--an AU in which, first and foremost, Yuma is a girl. Always a girl, born with a V, the whole nine yards. Why? Because the idea wouldn't leave me alone. So [I drew it](http://rainbow-galaxy-supernova.tumblr.com/post/164290621451/zexal-month-day-13-yuma-day-something-ive-been), and I started writing it, and I ran with it.
> 
> This is a rewrite of episodes 5-6

Every now and then Astral will suddenly say something, and it makes Yuma jump, which attracts enough stares at is, but then she starts cursing under her breath, which draws even more stares. She can’t explain Astral’s presence to Kotori and Tetsuo, she can barely explain it to herself. Numbers 39, 34, and 17 aren’t in her deck when she’s not dueling, sometimes Astral claims to disappear inside Yuma’s key, where an airship is located (How?! The key is literally the size of her finger!), and no one, not a single soul, can see or hear Astral aside from Yuma.

And to top things off, she’s got this kid from her class following her around and trying to give her a card. Apparently the kid wants to be friends with the girl who beat Shark, and let’s get one thing straight Yuma has kicked Shark’s butt before, this is not news, so she’s bewildered and pissed at everyone for suddenly looking at her like she’s impressive. She’s always been impressive, but she’s also an ordinary student trying to get through middle school, now with a naked ghost accompanying her, and somehow she’s supposed to find Numbers holders and duel them so Astral can reclaim their memories.

In short, Yuma is stressed.

After a day of dodging the kid (Tokunosuke, his name was) trying to give her the card, Yuma is exhausted and she’s damn near snapped at Kotori and Tetsuo multiple times. Somehow she manages to control her temper, as she goes through her evening, but she feels like a rubber band pulled taught, and sometime soon she’s going to snap.

 

 

That snap comes the following day at school, when Yuma practically sleepwalks into class and Takashi shoves his phone in her face.

“What is this?” Takashi demands.

Yuma practically goes cross-eyed. “I can’t see, it’s too close to my face,” she says.

“Don’t play dumb,” Takashi says, “We all got these pictures! You trampled the flower gardens, you pranked the teachers, and you put a toad in poor Taichi’s lunchbox! How could you do that?!”

Yuma is tired, stressed, and hurt by these accusations. She thought Takashi was, if not her friend, at least going to be nice to her after they investigated the city-wide crash. The cold stares of her classmates are like little needles poking at her, just as she was starting to come out of her shell. So, she reverts to how she dealt with things in the gang. She gets loud, and angry.

Yuma slams her backpack down on a nearby desk, making everyone jump.

“First of all,” Yuma growls, staring hard at Takashi, “Let me remind you that I am a year older than you, and I don’t like your disrespectful tone. Second, I have been in this class with all of you for months, have you ever seen a teacher get pranked in this classroom? And third, I haven’t seen these photos but don’t you know well enough by now that everything in this world can be manipulated? Take nothing at face value, don’t ever trust people to tell you the truth, because people will do anything to trick you!”

She stops herself, literally biting her tongue to keep herself from saying more. Her classmates stare at her in shock, and she can feel tears start to sting her eyes. Goddamnit, why is she an angry crier?

“Yuma,” Kotori says softly, but Yuma snatches up her bag and walks out of the classroom, head down to hide her tears.

 

 

It’s been a long time since Yuma cut school. She half wants to go to the mall and see if Red is there, but she can’t. She walked away from that, and Red respected it, but she doesn’t want to run into anyone who may recognize her.

“That boy made you upset,” Astral says suddenly.

Yuma doesn’t even have the energy to be surprised. She wipes her face on her sleeve and sniffles. “I overreacted,” she mumbles. “I should go back and apologize but I’m too ashamed to face them.”

“Why did he accuse you of those things?” Astral asks. “What did you mean by ‘everything can be manipulated’?”

“I don’t know why he accused me like that,” Yuma says. “As for everything can be manipulated…” she sighs. “I’ve been tricked before. A friend told me never to just outright trust something, I have to investigate it first. It kind of went against ‘kattobingu,’ but I realized my friend was right. I can’t always rush head first into things, because some people aren’t nice. Sometimes they take advantage of you.”

They’re at the mall. Yuma plops herself down on a bench, puts her head in her hands, and sighs. “I guess I got taken advantage of just now.”

“I know how that feels!”

Yuma lets out a shriek and jumps. Tokunosuke is standing next to her, and he looks surprised.

“Sorry,” Tokunosuke says.

“Christ!” Yuma cries, hands over her heart, “You trying to murder me?!”

Tokunosuke shakes his head. “No, I just overheard what you said now and—”

“Why are you skipping class?” Yuma interrupts.

“You’re skipping, too,” Tokunosuke says.

“Yeah, well, I’m a delinquent, apparently,” Yuma snaps, “What’s your excuse?” Then she flinches. “Sorry, I just had a rough morning.”

Tokunosuke adjusts his glasses. “I saw. I followed you because I was in a similar situation as you once. Cast aside by people I thought were my friends. I thought you might need cheering up.” He takes a card out of his pocket. “I’ve been trying to give it to you all this time.”

Yuma looks at it. Baby Tiragon…she knows that card, there’s something funny about it. She looks up at Tokunosuke. “Why would you want to give it to me? We don’t know each other.”

“No,” Tokunosuke agrees, “But maybe we could. How about we have a duel right now, and you use this card. If it helps you, you can keep it. If not, I’ll take it back.”

“Yuma,” Astral whispers, “Something is off about this boy.”

Yuma is inclined to agree, and she’s also inclined to find out just what is going on. So she smiles, takes the card, and agrees to the duel.

She gets a lot more than she bargained for.

“What is your deal?!” Yuma shouts as Tokunosuke summons _her_ Numbers cards. She can hear Astral groaning in pain, and as annoying as this naked ghost can be, she doesn’t want them to die. “Why are you so heartless?”

“I’m not heartless!” Tokunosuke cries. Yuma can see the Numbers taking hold of him—his hands shake and his eyes are wild. “I’m smarter than you! I learned from my mistakes, I don’t let people trick me anymore. You keep falling for the same shtick over and over. When people tricked me, I tricked them back, I lied and I cheated and I got more for it! I was respected, I was powerful! What have you gotten out of life? You beat Shark and you’re not even a great duelist!”

Yuma feels like her heart is breaking, not for herself, but for Tokunosuke. “Who were they?” She calls.

“Kids who dueled me with an ante!” Tokunosuke says. “I didn’t understand and they knew it!”

Yuma shakes her head. “That sucks, Tokunosuke. That really sucks, and I’m sorry you were hurt like that. But you can’t judge the world because a few people hurt you. Not everyone is looking to make a fool out of you. It’s okay to open up and let people get to know you.”

Tokunosuke stares at her.

“Protect Tiragon,” Astral whispers.

Yuma gets back to the duel, and this time her heart is really in it. One of the hardest things she had to do when leaving the duel gang was forget most of what Red taught her. The girl had a lot of good advice, but in the end, she and Yuma saw the world differently. Red walled herself up, kept only a few people close, and even then she never fully trusted them. Yuma couldn’t close herself off like that, because she didn’t think the risk of being hurt outweighed the benefits of talking to people, of getting to know them.

So when she beats Tokunosuke, and Astral is in one piece and has collected the numbers, Yuma goes and sits in front of the boy she misjudged.

“I get it,” Yuma says. “Being taken advantage of sucks. Being treated like a fool is a horrible feeling. But what’s worse than that is being all alone, because you don’t trust anyone. I don’t want to be an old lady walled up in my own house, afraid to step outside because I see monsters everywhere. Instead, I want to be the kind of person who sees good wherever they go. I want to be happy, and I want to make other people happy. Sometimes that means I have to stick my neck out for someone, and yeah, it may backfire. But if I don’t take that chance, I could miss out on something wonderful.” She takes Baby Tiragon from her deck. “Do you want it back?”

Tokunosuke begins to tear up. Behind her, Yuma hears a shout of her name, and she turns to see Kotori and Tetsuo running over.

“What happened?” Kotori asks.

Yuma grins. “Just having a little chat with my friend.”

“Friend?” Tokunosuke asks.

Yuma smiles. “Sure. You said you haven’t trusted anyone in years, and you can’t be friends without trust. So, I’d like to be the first person to earn your trust, and your friendship. What do you say?”

A tear slips down Tokunosuke’s cheek, and he rubs it away. “You can keep the card,” he mumbles.

“Sweet!” Yuma cries. She ruffles Tokunosuke’s hair. “Thanks, buddy!”


End file.
